Reading Binary codes

[Christopher Lynnes]

On 2/19/08 11:31 AM, "Arlindo da Silva" <dasilva at ALUM.MIT.EDU> wrote:

> On Feb 19, 2008 12:21 AM, baby liz <babyliz_leia at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Hie..
>>    I would like to know if GrADS can actually read binary codes and
>> display them? I have this TOMS satellite data in binary codes. Can I just
>> use GrADS to read the data and display it?
>>
>>
>
> GrADS can read binary files, provided they are written in a particular way.
> Your best bet is to study the documentation:
>
>      http://grads.iges.org/grads/gadoc/aboutgriddeddata.html
>
> As for reading TOMS EarthProbe aerosol index data, are you sure you have
> "binary files"? The documentation:
>
>     ftp://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/eptoms/data/1README
>
> refers to ASCII formatted files. In this case, they will need to be
> reformated in order to be read by GrADS.
>
>     Arlindo

Note that TOMS EP data is available in a reformatted form, albeit to
HDF-EOS, at the Goddard  Earth Sciences Data and Information Services
Center.  You can search for files with the Mirador search tool at
http://mirador.gsfc.nasa.gov
or go directly to FTP download at
ftp://acdisc.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/s4pa/Earth_Probe_TOMS_Level3/TOMSEPL3

When you get the data files you want, run "gradshdf" and use sdfopen, e.g.:

ga-> sdfopen TOMS-EP_L3-TOMSEPL3_2005m1231_v8.HDF
Scanning self-describing file:  TOMS-EP_L3-TOMSEPL3_2005m1231_v8.HDF
SDF file has no discernable time coordinate.
SDF file TOMS-EP_L3-TOMSEPL3_2005m1231_v8.HDF is open as file 1
LON set to 0 360
LAT set to -89.5 89.5
LEV set to 0 0
Time values set: 1:1:1:0 1:1:1:0
ga-> set gxout shaded
ga-> d ozone
Contouring: 220 to 420 interval 20
ga->

--

Christopher Lynnes             NASA/GSFC, Code 610.2         301-614-5185